January Meme: The Book(s) I would most like to see filmed

[selenak]

Which ffutures wanted to know. There's one answer I can't give due to Darth Real Life, but my next answer is: Barbara Hambly's Benjamin January series of mystery novels, starting with A Free Man of Colour. And I want a tv series adaptation, with a good budget so we can have great costumes and a plausible mid 19th century New Orleans (and Paris for the flashbacks). Our leading man and two thirds of the regular cast are people of colour (the white regulars being Abishag Shaw, Hannibal, and in the later novels/seasons Henri and Chloe), and as this is a huge plot point in every single case, you can't change it, so the series would automatically provide excellent roles and regular income for poc actors.

Now I'm not sure whether it should be one or two books per season, I suppose that depends on the books. Most, though not all, have important character developments going on with the regular cast, though should the tv version decide to skip some of the novels in terms of the main case of the novel in question, I hope they'll remember to let the character stuff happen in the background of another case regardless. And it really needs to be a tv series, not a movie, because there's no way to do justice to the complicated web of relationships that unfold otherwise. Ben and his family alone! A movie would probably make caricatures out of Dominique and Livia, though for opposite reasons, if it wouldn't soften Livia altogether, and would introduce Rose right away, when I think it was a good thing Barbara Hambly waited until the second novel, when everyone else's introductions have already happened and Rose has more breathing space, so to speak.

Another danger would be that they'd cut Ben's backstory with Ayesha. Which I really hope they wouldn't, because I have a soft spot for stories in which someone who has lost a much loved partner gets to the point where they can live and love again, and neither the second nor the first love are treated as superior, both are valued by the narrative and the character, it's not a competition. So my ideal adaptation would, like the novels, include Ayesha as a post mortem character, so to speak, via flashbacks, not right from the get go, though there would be some hints and dialogue references, but unfolding with the seasons.

Since Ben is not just a doctor but a musician by trade (and the later is in fact how he makes his living in New Orleans when he returns from Paris), I would hope that either the actor playing him leans how to face it convincingly and we have a good musician filling in the performance parts, or we luck out with an actor who can play the piano. (Ditto with Hannibal and the violin.) In any case, this brings me to the soundtrack. Now I've seen enough shows and films where they do something interesting with modern music in a historical setting to know it's doable, but again, Ben, our leading character, is a musician as well as a doctor, and this is often very plot relevant, so I would love a soundtrack reflecting both the operas and symphonies of the era and the emerging black music. Come on, New Orleans is our main setting!

In conclusion: Apple+, since you've seduced me into paying for you by various of your shows, you should make this your next costly project!

The other days

Comments

[musesfool]

Ooh, I've only read the first couple of books, but this would be amazing!

[selenak]

Wouldn't it just be? Here's hoping!

[profiterole_reads]

I haven't read it (because I don't have the time to read everything), but I would watch it.

Also, I would like some of NK Jemisin's works to be adapted for real (there have been several adaptation projects, which have led to nothing at all...).

[lizbee]

LEAVING A LIZ-SHAPED HOLE IN YOUR DOOR AS I CRASH THROUGH IT TO SAY

Omar Sy as Benjamin Janvier SEND MESSAGE

[selenak]

YES YES YES!

[lirazel]

This is exactly who I cast when I did a fancasting some years ago!

[andraste]

By coincidence, I am just about to finish the first audio book and have spent the whole twelve hour thinking how much I'd love a TV show version. (I've read the first nine or ten, but I like to do my re-reading by audio book these days.)

Since I've been thinking about adaptational logistics of A Free Man of Colour specifically, and I do wonder how they'd go about casting Myerling in a way that doesn't instantly give the game away to the audience. I feel like the most straightforward approach would be to have Ben find out his secret at the beginning of the story, but not how he's connected to SPOILER and therefore the case.

Very much agreed about waiting to introduce Rose. It's also an important character arc that Ben starts the first book wanting to get away from New Orleans and wondering why he even came back in the first place, but ends it realising that it's his home no matter what awful things have happened to him there. I think having him meet Rose before he's gone on that journey would muddy things too much.

[selenak]

Hmmmmm, I suppose they could try to do the same as what Discovery did, i.e. provide the (in the US not known) actor with a made up alias and identity in the credits. I'm sure any number of young German actors would be ready, willing and able. :) Otherwise, yes, that might work.

[sovay]

Barbara Hambly's Benjamin January series of mystery novels, starting with A Free Man of Colour. And I want a tv series adaptation, with a good budget

In 2016 I was confused after three books that a series didn't exist; I'm even more confused now; I would have opinions from space about the casting of Hannibal. (John Hawkes was a strong contender after Small Town Crime (2017), but I don't know about his musicianship.)

Slow Horses has been managing a novel a season without feeling crunched, so I bet a Benjamin January series could do it.

[rachelmanija]

I regret to say that I am not confused at all.

Racism aside though, historicals are extremely expensive.

[sovay]

Racism aside though, historicals are extremely expensive.

The phrase was more of an expression of frustration than an inability to contemplate reasons that no executive in almost thirty years might have optioned the books, but since at the moment there seems to be quite a lot of historical television going on, it actually does make less sense to me now than in the 2000's.

[At the time when I first discovered the series, much of my friendlist was watching Underground (2016–2017); these days Interview with the Vampire (2022–) gets nice reviews. There's a proven audience aside from all the people who read the books.]

[lizbee]

The success of IWTV proves there's an audience for a series that's partially in French, if nothing else!

[oracne]

100% WOULD WATCH.

[ffutures]

That's an interesting one - and she's well overdue to have a TV series or film based on her work. I know that she's worked in the industry and has credits for various shows, so it's strange that it hasn't happened. Admittedly my first thought would have been Bride of the Rat God, since it has all the "Big Trouble in Little China" vibe to it, but for an extended TV series A Free Man of Colour would work very well. Thanks!

[selenak]

Oh, Bride of the Rad God is undoubtedly my favourite standalone of hers and would make a great movie. But I want the Benjamin January tv series even more!

[dalmeny]

Long overdue!

[selenak]

Indeed.

[lirazel]

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

I m not sure how they'd do it re: language since everyone is always switching back and forth between French and English and then there's Ben and Hannibal frequently talking in, like, Latin or Ancient Greek.

And it really needs to be a tv series, not a movie, because there's no way to do justice to the complicated web of relationships that unfold otherwise. Ben and his family alone! A movie would probably make caricatures out of Dominique and Livia, though for opposite reasons

CORRECT.

but again, Ben, our leading character, is a musician as well as a doctor, and this is often very plot relevant, so I would love a soundtrack reflecting both the operas and symphonies of the era and the emerging black music. Come on, New Orleans is our main setting!

YES YES YES.

[selenak]

Well, the situation isn't as monolingual as it used to be in US tv. I give Lost a lot of credit there, given its decision to have Sun and Jin talk in Korean most of the time, subtitled - I think that was the first time a bona fide network hit show had (some) main characters use a different language through its run and correctly expected its audience to accept the subtitles? And in the last decades, there were other examples. I think you could get away with requiring the main cast to talk in both English and French (with subtitles), and have the Ben, Rose and Hannibal actors learn the occasional Latin phrase.

[lirazel]

I guess I'm more concerned about whether there are enough actors who could speak both convincingly, you know?

[selenak]

Having gone through an infinite number of actors who very noticably can't speak German yet yell variations of it on screen in many a US production, my patience in this regard is infinite - if the actors otherwise embody the characters well, of course.

[lirazel]

OMG, I hadn't even thought of that. Yeah, American tv/movies are really bad about German in particular, aren't they? But it's nice that it has given you infinite patience!

[contrary_cal]

Oh wow, I'd love a prestige Ben January TV adaptation!